Monday’s big movers: Mr. Dimon goes to Washington

Molycorp surges 20%; Apple Maps needs to come with a warning

GregMorcroft

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Shares of Nexen Inc., Cliffs Natural Resources Inc., Groupon Inc. made big moves during U.S. trading Monday, while Google Inc. and Apple Inc. were among top trending tickers.

Top tickers trending

$JPM: How does Treasury Secretary Dimon sound? J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.
JPM, -1.56%
shares shed 0.6% amid tweets that Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is headed to the U.S. Treasury. His name has been popping up more often as a potential successor to Tim Geithner after Warren Buffett said in an interview in November that Dimon would be the best person to lead the Treasury during a crisis. Many on Twitter were skeptical that Dimon would leave Wall Street for D.C.

Reuters

Jamie Dimon, CEO of J.P. Morgan

@deltaStrikejj: Going to Treasury? Jamie Dimon can’t even manage his own company’s risk because he doesn’t understand what a standard deviation is. $jpm

@uclarolo: Rumor? Jamie Dimon as Treasury Secretary. The OWS people must be thrilled. I just don’t think he would leave $JPM for the Treasury.

$AAPL: Apple
AAPL, -1.92%
made waves on Twitter after Jefferies & Co. analysts cut their price target for the shares from $900 to $800. They also suggested that Apple is likely to launch iPhone 5S in June or July.

“Based on our checks, likely updates include a new super HD camera/screen, a better battery and NFC [near-field communication capability]. Possible updates include an IGZO screen for Retina+, 128GB storage and coming in six to eight colors,” according to Peter Misek and his team at Jefferies.

Apple Maps glitches would make for an interesting read if not for their potentially fatal consequences. But travelers down under were not amused.

Apple Maps can apparently kill you, according to Australian police. After several people relying on Apple Maps were stranded out in the wilderness in the outback and had to be rescued, police are urging travelers to use a different map.

“Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees (about 114 degrees Fahrenheit), making this a potentially life threatening issue.

“Some of the motorists located by police have been stranded for up to 24 hours without food or water and have walked long distances through dangerous terrain to get phone reception,” said Victoria Police in a statement.

Apple replaced Google Maps with its own mapping app in its latest mobile operating system release, but problems with the maps app forced Chief Executive Tim Cook to issue a public apology and led to an executive losing his job. See: Using Apple Maps is bad for your health

@RAEckart: Noticed all other stocks simply stopped to watch $AAPL. $$

$JCP: J.C. Penney Co.
JCP, -0.56%
shares rose for a third session, outperforming its peers even as analysts were downbeat on the retailer.

Unseasonably warm weather along with uncertainty about the fiscal cliff have led to an increasingly promotional environment in the retail sector, Michael Exstein at Credit Suisse noted. “From our channel checks, markdown activity was especially intense at the low (KSS and JCP) and high (SKS) ends,” he said.

Matthew Boss at J.P. Morgan insists J.C. Penney is not broken. However, it is expected to remain “constrained“ in the near-future and top-line prospects are likely to be lackluster.

“In our view, CEO Ron Johnson has been successful at incrementally improving the JCP shopping experience (less inventory, improved sightlines), but this represents only the first step. The key will be content changes ahead with 100 shop-in-shops launched in stores through 2015 and new brands (including Tourneau, Joe Fresh, and Bodum) announced to date and more to come,” Boss said.

“While we don’t doubt the strategy and improvements in shop performance, we remain on the sidelines and await some signs of stability.” See The Tell item on JCP

@penniesdymes: $JCP just doesn’t want to give up.. Ron Johnson fighting through it and if you fight you have a good chance of winning!

@_shagarie: I like Ron Johnson 2013 “To Do” BUT how long will it take to shift from paper on his desk to paper in my pocket? $JCP

@SparrowMinded: It’s Not You, A Bunch Of Google Stuff Is Broken This Morning androidpolice.com/2012/12/10/its… #Google $GOOG

@michiganwar: still a few issues with gmail...fix it $GOOG! I pay you nothing and deserve to have it up full time!

$MCP: Molycorp
US:MCP
shares surged 20%, generating buzz on Twitter. The stock of the rare-earth-products company had fallen 58% year to date.

@CharlieThomps0n: $MCP had to happen eventually

@szaman: $MCP beast!

Rex Crum/MarketWatch

Foo Fighters perform at an Apple event.

Gainers

Cliffs Natural Resources
CLF, -4.41%
shares are the best performers on the S&P 500 Index
SPX, -1.54%
climbing 4.6%. The mining company last week priced $500 million in senior notes due 2018. “The net proceeds from the issuance of the senior notes are expected to be used to repay Cliffs private placement senior notes due in 2013 and 2015, as well as for general corporate purposes,” the company said in a statement.

U.S.-listed shares of Canada’s Nexen
US:NXYCA:NXY
added 14%. The shares, which had fallen last weak on fears that the country would not approve a deal with China’s Cnooc Ltd.
CEO, +0.60%
rebounded after Ottawa did approve the deal. The Chinese takeover of the firm that works in the Canadian oil sands would be China’s biggest-ever foreign acquisition. See: Cnooc-Nexen deal may spur more China energy M&A.

Decliners

Groupon
GRPN, -1.79%
shares slid 9.3% after hopes of a buyout by Google were dashed. Last week, Groupon stock had rallied on a Bloomberg report that Google may again consider buying the daily deal service provider.

“Friday offered a swirl of speculative information and potentially false reports that led to the 23% increase, including a reported cancellation of a public appearance by Andrew Mason for this Tuesday (fueling M&A speculation) and a Bloomberg article citing opinion that at current valuation, Google could be among interested parties taking a second look. We find no basis for these claims,” Ken Sena and Andrew McNellis at Evercore Partners wrote in a report.

“We see Google and other would-be acquirers as believers in ‘network effect,’ which argues against renewed interest, given the current pace of daily-deal deterioration, which we peg at negative 20% quarter on quarter, excluding the effect of other contributing factors,” the analysts said.

Priceline.com Inc.
PCLN, -2.30%
shares declined 5%, the worst on the S&P 500. Analysts at Deutsche Bank on Monday downgraded the stock’s rating to hold from buy, noting risks from a slowdown in international travel and currency fluctuations. “We remain upbeat on PCLN’s best-in-class execution, but the favorable competitive environment the company enjoyed for the past couple years in its core markets may get less favorable,” the analysts said in a report.

Zogenix Inc.
ZGNX, +3.88%
shares fell 51% after news on Friday that a U.S. Food and Drug Administration panel voted against approving the firm’s proposed pain drug. On Monday, Oppenheimer analysts downgraded the stock to perform from outperform.

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